Development of flexible and high sensitivity graphene foam based pressure sensors

Pressure sensors are widely used devices in a variety of sectors from automotive, medical, industrial and consumer devices. These applications can range from ultrasensitive e-skin, touch screen displays, medical diagnostics and health monitoring [1]. To compete with current industrial pressure sensors, a new easily fabricated, reproducible, and highly sensitive pressure sensor compatible with temperature sensitive substrates (plastic, fabrics, paper etc) is required. Within this paper the fabrication process is described, as well as showing the use of PDMS as a protective layer. Characterization of the fabricated sensors showed a sensitivity of 0.0418 mV/kPa over a range from 1 to 50 kPa. Cyclic testing showed that the use of a protective PDMS coating increased the durability of the sensors, keeping the voltage produced steady with no visible drop after large numbers of presses.